Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/137

Rh MYSTERIES 125 architecture, music, dancing, itc., were combined with lavish skill to form one grand and impressive spectacle. Other great festivals were displays of Attic splendour, but the Mysteries were intended, in the Periclean scheme, to be the great religious ceremony of all Greece ; the allies were required, and the other Greeks requested, to pay homage and first-fruits to the two goddesses of Eleusis. 1 The strictest secrecy was enjoined and observed in regard to the Mysteries and everything connected with them ; but this secrecy was not that of a narrow cult, confined to a small number of participants. The Eleusinian Mysteries were open as early as the time of Herodotus to any of the Greeks who wished to be initiated. 2 There was, therefore, no secret to keep inviolate from the uninitiated. Just as in the actual representation of the Mysteries a silence so strict as to be proverbial 3 was maintained, so it was a condition of their good effect that they should not here after be lightly spoken of. 4 Those who believed in the Mysteries kept in their heart, as a saving and sacred pos session, the knowledge of what they had seen and heard and kissed and handled ; the thought was too holy to be rashly spoken of, even to the initiated. 5 Numerous refer ences prove that this mystic silence was generally very carefully observed. In the poets we sometimes find an affectation of observing silence about myths which are quite common property ; and writers of religious or super stitious character frequently make a mystic secret of matters that less scrupulous writers speak freely about. 6 The degree to which silence Avas observed depended entirely on the individual conscience, and the fact that it was in general so strictly maintained is the best proof of the vitality and power of the Mysteries over the popular mind. The saving and healthy effect of the Eleusinian Mysteries was believed in not only by the mass of the people but by many of the most thoughtful and educated intellects, Pindar, Sophocles, Isocrates, Plutarch, &c. 7 Plato, who finds no language too strong to stigmatize the demoralizing effect of the Orphic Mysteries, speaks of the Eleusinia with great respect ; he compares the contemplation of the &quot; ideas &quot; by the disembodied souls to the contem plation of the &quot;phasmata&quot; 8 revealed in the Mysteries. This saving power is expressly connected with the future life ; he that has been initiated has learned what will ensure his happiness hereafter. This point, which is ridiculed by Lobeck (pp. 70-1), must be examined carefully. The words of Pindar, Sophocles, Isocrates agree with the words of the Homeric Hymn (1. 480) that the initiated have peculiar advantages in the future world, and many other passages are equally clear and distinct. Lobeck maintains that they have no special meaning, inasmuch as Isocrates says the same about all men who live an upright life. 9 This argument misses the most important religious ques tion with regard to the subject, Is the salvation in the future life, which is assured by initiation, attained by mere ritualistic observances, or does it depend on the effect produced by initiation on the life and character of the initiated person 1 Plato condemns in the strongest terms the Orphic Mysteries, which promise salvation in return 1 Inscription published by Foucart in Bull. Corr. Hell., 1880. - Herod., viii. 65. It was an accusation against Socrates that he alone of all the Athenians had not been initiated, Lucian, Dem., is.. 237 ; Lobeck, p. 21. 3 Philostr., Vit. ApolL, i. 15, 17, tiffirep Iv /xi/orr/pt ots ecnuTrw, &c.; see Lobeck, p. 67. 4 Strab., p. 357, i) Kpv-fiis rj fj.vffTi.KTj &amp;lt;rf/j.i&amp;gt;oiroiei TO OeTov. 5 Macrob., Sat., i. 18, 236; Lobeck, p. 135. 6 Theocr., iii. 50, and many passages in Herod, and Pans. 7 Pind.,/r. 102 ; Soph.,/r. 719, Ddf. ; Isocr., Pan., vi. p. 50, 28 ; Crinagoras in Jac., Anthol., ii. 332; Cic., Leyy., ii. 14; Lobeck, 11. 8 Plat., Phsedr., p. 250, Epin., p. 986. u Isocr., Symmach., xii. 266. for mere ritualistic acts of purification and initiation ; if he respects the Eleusinian Mysteries, which also promise salvation as the reward of initiation, this can be only because he believes that they promise it on different grounds. The reason is explained by Isocrates, who expressly says that this salvation in the future life, the reward of the initiated, is gained by all who live a pious and just life. In like manner, Diodorus says that the initiated are said to grow better; and Andocides makes a similar remark about the object of the Mysteries. Accord ing to Sopater, initiation establishes a kinship of the soul with the divine nature; and Theon Smyrnseus says that the final stage of initiation is the state of bliss and divine favour which results from it. 10 These quotations prove the general belief that the aim of the Eleusinian Mysteries was high, and that a lasting effect was produced by them on the initiated. This im plies a high stage of religious thought, such as no other ancient faith, except that of the Hebrews, attained ; but a. passage in a Rhodian inscription of the 5th century B.C. shows that this idea was not wholly unfamiliar in Greek religion. The first and most important condition required of those who would enter the temple at Lindus is that they be pure in heart, and not conscious of any crime ; conditions of ceremonial purity are enumerated as secondary matters. 11 Now, with regard to the profanation of the Mysteries by those persons who ridiculed them, it is easy to understand that the very simple character of the rites, the commonplace nature of the sacred things which were exposed as the crowning ceremony of the Mysteries to the adoration of the people, lent themselves readily to ridicule when contrasted with the solemn preparations that led up to the crowning act, and the great effects that were expected from the initiation. The people who had been initiated, who believed in the salutary effect of the admission to handle and kiss the sacred objects, were naturally both shocked and indignant at the ridicule thus cast on their holy sacra ment by the pitiless analysis of a cold disbelieving intellect. They felt that more than met the eye existed in these sacred things. The Mysteries occupied a place among the ancients analogous to that of the Holy Sacrament in the Christian church. The intention was to admit all that were not notoriously wicked ; the disqualifying crime was unexpiated murder. The belief was entertained that the solemnity and impressiveness of the ceremony tended to produce a strong effect on the character of the initiated. There is overwhelming proof in ancient writers that the effect of the Mysteries was not dependent on any dogmatic instruction. Even the doctrine of a future life, which is always associated in the old writers with the Mysteries, was not expressly inculcated in them, but left to the spec tators to gather for themselves from the spectacle presented to them. 12 On the other hand, ancient testimony shows a striking unanimity in describing the manner in which the Mysteries were believed to educate the people. One of the most important passages is that where Galen main tains that the study of nature, if prosecuted with the con centrated attention given to the Mysteries, is even more fitted than they are to reveal the power and wisdom of God, inasmuch as these truths are more obscurely expressed in the Mysteries than in nature. Plato compares the con templation of the &quot;ideas&quot; with that of the Mysteries; Chry- sippus calls the discussion on the nature of the gods, which forms the last section of the Stoic physic, reAe-n/. 13 From 10 Diod. Sic., Hist., v. 48 ; Andoc., De Myst., 31 ; Sopat., Diner. Zetem., p. 120, in Walz, Rhet. Gnec. ; Theon Smyrn., Mathem., i. p. 18, ed. Bull ; see Lobeck, pp. 39, 189. 11 Inscription quoted by Foucart in Inscr. de la Peloponn., p. 171, in Le Bas, Voy. Archeol. 12 Lobeck, 216-19. 13 Lobeck, 19-20.